Think Tank: We mustall feather the nest

There is a real danger of an absurd situation where those who pay no income tax vote in favour of more taxes from the dwindling cohort that does

The new Seanad’s motto should be: No representation without taxation
Every state collects money from its citizens and then redistributes it as
services — defence, policing, infrastructure, education, health, benefits
and pensions — in varying degrees of quantity, quality and competence.
Everyone likes the second part of the transaction, but hates the first.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, a finance minister under Louis XIV, once likened
taxation to plucking a live goose: the art is to extract the maximum amount
of feathers for the minimum amount of hissing. In America, we have just seen
an excess of (successful) hissing by the Tea Party, which wants fewer or
smaller services in exchange for lower taxes.

In Ireland, conversely, the people are hissing at the thought of services and
benefits being reduced, even though everyone realises that taxes would have
to rise to pay for them. It is as if the green goose of Ireland is demanding
that even more feathers be extracted.